Law scholarships and prizes

Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Diploma awards are available.

Undergraduate Student Prizes

Berriedale Keith Essay Prize

A prize is jointly awarded to the students with the highest essay mark in The Changing Constitution and the Fundamental Issues in Comparative Constitutional Law courses.

Dickson Minto Prize

A prize is awarded for the highest aggregated mark for the Commercial Law (Ordinary) and Business Entities (Ordinary) courses.

Family Law Association Prizes

Two prizes are awarded to the students with the highest mark for the Family Law (Ordinary) and Family Law (Honours) courses.

Forensic Essay Prize

A prize is awarded for the highest mark in the essay for the Civil Law Ordinary course.

Gilchrist Prize

A prize is awarded to the student with the best performance in the Honours course International Law.

Herbert Smith Freehills Prize

A prize is awarded to the student with the best overall second year performance preceding an exchange year.

James Craig Howie Memorial Prize

Two prizes are awarded to the students who obtain the highest placing in:

  • Scottish Legal System, Critical Legal Thinking, Contract and Unjustified Enrichment and Public Law of the UK and Scotland.
  • Property Law Ordinary, Commercial Law Ordinary, Delict and Revenue Law.

Joelle Godard Prize

A prize is awarded to the student with the best overall performance graduating with the joint honours Law and French degree.

John Hastie Scholarships

Two scholarships are awarded to the students who in the opinion of the School of Law are the most and second most distinguished graduates of the academic year of award, taking into account the degree exams which they have passed in:

  • Scottish Legal System, Delict and Contract and Unjustified Enrichment (Ordinary level).
  • Property Law and Family Law (Ordinary level).
  • Any two of Public Law of the UK and Scotland, Commercial Law, Evidence and Criminal Law (Ordinary level).

The degree exams should have been taken in consecutive years. A condition of the Scholarship is that students have to provide a written undertaking that they will qualify as a solicitor in Scotland.

Lord President Cooper Memorial Prize

A prize is awarded to an Honours student of outstanding distinction on completion of his or her Law degree.

The prize winner also receives an engraved medal awarded at the July Graduation ceremony.

MacLagan Prizes

Two prizes are awarded to the students with the best overall performance in the Contemporary Issues in Medical Jurisprudence and Fundamental Issues in Medical Jurisprudence Honours courses.

Margaret Balfour Keith Prize

A prize is awarded to the most distinguished student in the Public Law of the UK and Scotland course.

McClintock Prize

A prize is awarded to the student with the best performance in Criminology (Honours), Gender and Justice (Honours) or Punishment and Society (Honours).

Miller Prizes

Two prizes are awarded to the highest placed student in the Commercial Law (Ordinary) and Revenue Law (Ordinary) courses.

Muirhead Prize

A prize is awarded to the student who obtains first place in the Civil Law Ordinary course.

Munkman Prize

A prize is awarded to the best student in the Ordinary course of International Law.

Oxford University Press Law Prize

A prize is awarded to the student with the top mark in the Undergraduate Dissertation.

Philip Barry Prize

A prize is awarded to the best student in the Introduction to Criminology (Ordinary) course.

Scots Law Society Prize

A prize is awarded annually to the student who has in the year of award been recommended for the degree of LLB with Honours, and who in the opinion of the Professor of Scots Law is the most distinguished student to have been examined in two of the following Honours courses:

  • Family Law
  • Contract
  • Delict
  • Criminal Law
  • Property Law

Thow Scholarships

Three scholarships are awarded to the most distinguished students in the following Ordinary courses:

  • Scottish Legal System
  • Contract and Unjustified Enrichment
  • Property Law

Postgraduate Student Prizes

David Edward Prize

The David Edward Prize is awarded annually to the student taking the LLM in European Law who achieves the best dissertation grade.

Latham & Watkins Prize

A prize will be awarded to the student who has achieved the best overall mark in the Corporate Law LLM programme (including all subjects and dissertation).

Maclagan Prizes

Two postgraduate prizes are awarded each year:

  • For the best overall online LLM student in Medical Law and Ethics
  • For the best overall on-campus LLM student in Medical Law and Ethics

T.B Smith Prize

The T.B. Smith Prize is awarded for the most distinguished scholar graduating from a LLM or MSc postgraduate degree.

W.A. Wilson Prize

The W.A. Wilson Prize is awarded for the best dissertation submitted by a student graduating with the LLM in International Law.

Diploma Student Prizes

BCKM prize

The BCKM Prize is awarded for the best performance in the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice course, Criminal Court Practice.

Diploma in Professional Legal Practice Prize

The Diploma in Professional Legal Practice Prize is awarded for the best overall performance by a Diploma in Professional Legal Practice graduate.

Gillespie MacAndrew Prize

Sponsored by Gillespie Macandrew LLP, this prize is for the best performance in a Diploma in Professional Legal Practice course, Professional Skills and Responsibility.

Law Society of Scotland Prize

Two prizes are awarded annually to the top student in the Private Client (formerly, Wills, Trusts and Executries) course and the top student in Civil Court Practice course. Both courses form part of the curriculum for the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice.

Poise Financial Planning Prize

The Poise Financial Planning Prize is awarded to the best performance in the Diploma in Professional Legal Studies course Financial Services and Related Skills.

Thorntons Prize

The Thorntons Prize is awarded for the best performance in the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice course, Conveyancing, and for the best performance in the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice course , Company and Commercial.

Miscellaneous Prizes

Edinburgh University Mooting Society - Best Oralist 

The Edinburgh University Mooting Society Best Oralist prize is awarded for the most outstanding performance of a legal argument. Previously the Hastie Stable Best Oralist prize

Edinburgh University Mooting Society - Junior Competition Prize

The prize is awarded to the winners of the Edinburgh Law School Junior Mooting Competition. Formerly known as the Pinsent Masons Prize.

Sheriff TP Macdonald QC Memorial Prize and Edinburgh University Mooting Society Senior Competition Trophy 

Sheriff TP Macdonald QC Memorial Prize and Edinburgh University Mooting Society Senior Competition Trophy is awarded to the winning pair in the Law School Senior Mooting Competition. The prize was formerly the the LexisNexis Butterworths Senior Mooting Competition.

WS Society Best Researcher

The WS Society Best research Prize is awarded to the student with the best research skills within Edinburgh University Mooting Society activities over the course of the academic year.